While the rest of the precious metals refining industry moves towards more ESG-centric policies, ABC Refinery has led the move towards ‘greener’ gold with substantial action for some time.

That should come as no surprise. ABC Refinery – Australasia’s largest independent precious metal refinery – is part of the Pallion Group, for whom provenance and corporate responsibility are central to their operations. ‘Considerate® Precious Metals’ is both their ethos, and the name of their annual corporate sustainability report. Pallion are the first precious metals refiner in Australia to produce such a report, and its fourth edition is due to be published later this year.

ABC Refinery on Why Go Green?

While there is a global move for corporations to improve ESG credentials, Pallion Group CEO Andrew Cochineas explains ABC Refinery doesn’t need to virtue signal. Going green is simply a smart move for business, including for the following reasons:

ABC Refinery is located in Marrickville – a mixed industrial-residential suburb in inner-west Sydney. As an important part of the local community and with plans to be so for the long term, the onus is on the refinery to be a good neighbour.

While initial investment in greener technology and processes is significant, this leadership position tends to be more cost-efficient in the long run.

ABC Refinery products are likely to be viewed upon more favourably into the future, as requirements for transparency and provenance intensify – adding value beyond their current market value.

What does greener gold mean to ABC Refinery?

Looking deeper into what Considerate® Precious Metals means:

Ethical & Responsible Sourcing

• Delivering the highest standard sourcing practices & environmental sustainability
• Investment in systems and technology to be able to produce a green product

Greener gold

• Responsible feed material – highest levels of due diligence
• Selective sourcing policy – including metal type, country of origin, supplier and customer profile
• No legacy client or supplier of questionable origins
• Ability to batch refine and segregate feed
• Demonstrate 100% transparent supply chain over the entire product lifecycle

Supply chain audit & compliance

• OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) and SGE (Shanghai Gold Exchange) compliant
• Annual reviews of all customer supplies, including site visits to mining operations
• Annual independent audit of policies and practices

Recent technological examples

Acidless Separation (ALS)

ALS is considered the most environmentally-acceptable, technologically advanced and non-toxic process currently available for separating gold.

Instead of using metal chlorination to refine as with traditional refiners, ALS uses vacuum pump technology. The result is an output requiring no chemicals, and producing no fumes or smoke.

ABC Refinery is one of the first in the world – and at the time of writing the only Australian refinery – to use this technology.

So significant are the benefits, that ABC Refinery recently doubled its ALS capacity, making it the largest such refiner in the world.

ABCINTERING™ coin and tablet production with reduced waste

A proprietary technology developed by ABC Refinery, ABCINTERING™ uses sintering technology when making coins and tablets to increase capacity while reducing production waste by more than 30%. The greener benefit being the corresponding reduction in power required to remelt and refine the waste.

Pyrolytic incineration

This world-leading process for waste disposal eliminates the need for waste to go to landfill, while allowing for the recovery and refinement of residual precious metals. Environmentally, the benefit is significant, with a major reduction in energy requirements thanks to a 600% improvement in operational efficiency when compared with traditional processes.

ProvCheck™

Developed by Blockhead Technologies and introduced by ABC Refinery, ProvCheck securely encrypts and stores information on each gold bar’s unique ‘fingerprint’, as well as its entire supply chain and environmental credentials. Users can verify the authenticity and provenance of an individual bar, via a mobile app.

Long term vision

Greener gold doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a long-term commitment and ongoing investment in technology and processes. The benefit to ABC Refinery is their precious metals products are made using fewer resources, creating less waste, resulting in a lower impact on staff, the surrounding community and environment.

About ABC Refinery:

ABC Refinery is Australia’s largest independent precious metals refiner and exclusive producer of ABC Bullion. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) considers ABC Bullion gold and silver bars as investment investment-grade bullion, and as such exempt from Goods and Services Tax (GST).